A Blast From The Past
by TheCookieGenius
Summary: 21051, 18537, 12144. Damon, Isabella, Lorenzo. Fifty years after going though the worst time of their existences, they're back together and ready to destroy all who once brought them pain. But this is not just a story about revenge. It's about love and hurt and pain, and a broken girl having to choose between two damaged men. Even if there wasn't a choice to begin with.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay. New story. I'm sorry, I just couldn't get this out of my head and it was driving me nuts and now I'm very excited about it. Just to help you guys situate, this happens during Damon and Elena's time on the Augustine cells, and it'll follow from there, okay? I don't think it'll be very TVD canon, since I'm getting quite mad at all the sh*t Damon's getting at the moment, but I'll try to make it was normal as possible. Not that it was any normal to being with. Why don't you guys comment me your thoughts, eh? Oh, I don't own any of this, except the plot, but I think you know that already.**

* * *

**Damon, Enzo, Isabella. 1953.**

It was very unusual for a human to be able to dominate a vampire, but that was exactly what was happening with Damon and Dr. Whitmore. Even though he had been a vampire for nearly a hundred years, he had been pumped full of vervain and tied to a table, where people proceeded in taking pieces of him until he couldn't think anymore. So when the overly creative doctor roughly guided him into a cell, Damon just allowed himself to be pushed, his head down as he felt his vision regenerate slowly.

Dr. Whitmore threw him in the cell, closing it and leaving, not sparing him a second glance as he left the corridor. Damon lay on the floor, groaning in agony as he waited for his body to heal himself.

"Welcome." Someone slurred around him, as he struggled to raise himself off of the floor. As Damon lifted his head, he looked around until he found the source of the voice. It was a male, who sat against the wall of the cell right next to his. He looked dirty and bruised, but still held himself with some sort of class, and Damon wondered how it was possible to maintain any dignity if had been through the same kinds of torture he was just submitted to. "Dr. Whitmore never gets tired of watching us vampires heal, but he gives us one glass of blood per day, just enough to keep us alive." He continued, and Damon crawled up to his elbows, just as the vampire dragged himself to the bars that separated their cells, sticking his hand between the metal. "My name's Enzo."

"Pick yourself up, soldier." Another voice rang, and she sounded a little more clear and strong, even if it was a woman. Damon turned his head to look at her, and she raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement. She was in the cell in front of his, and if Damon hadn't been locked and nearly tortured to death, he'd have found her to be infinitely beautiful. And she was, even if the pretty white dress was stained with blood, the long, wavy hair looked knotted and caked, and she looked tired and bruised. Damon wondered how the doctor had nerve to hurt such a pretty, dainty looking girl. "Well, I _assume_ you are a soldier. You look like one."

"Civil War." He mumbled, and she nodded.

"Ah. A confederate, then. I was a nurse on the Civil War." The girl remarked, sweeping her eyes across the cells and then turning back to stare at the ceiling. "I'm Isabella."

"Damon." He nodded, using all the strength he had to lift a side of his mouth.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm sure we'll be the best of friends, now." Enzo smirked, but Damon could rarely count that as a victory.

* * *

**Damon, Elena. 2011.**

"They held a girl here?" Elena gasped, and Damon nodded. "How long?"

"Bella and Enzo met Dr. Whitmore while they were in Europe, during World War II. She tended the wounded and fed on the dying. And Enzo didn't die, no matter how many times he got shot. The good doctor noticed that, pumped them full of vervain, locked them in coffins and brought them here. Ten years before they got me, give it or take." He explained, keeping his eyes directed to the cell across from his, where the pretty girl with brown eyes used to be.

"I can't imagine… How could you not go crazy?" Elena wondered, and her voice was breezy and scared, and in the place they were, in the situation he found himself in, once again, Damon wished, just for a second, that she could be stronger, like the one he had met when he was first locked in that terrible place.

"We kept each other sane. Plans of what we would do once we were out, places we'd see, people we'd kill." He replied, leaning against the wall, that same way Enzo used to do all those years ago.

"Damon… Wes knew my dad. He said he was an Augustine too." Blue eyes caught brown, and Elena looked down quickly and apologetically. "I know he was a vampire hunter. But he was also the town's doctor. He was warm and gentle and he loved us. I refuse to believe he'd be a part of a place where they'd cut a _girl's_ eye out." She moaned, and Damon's eyes snapped towards her.

"People are full of surprises, huh?" He wondered, and she lowered her head into the floor. "She was a strong one, Bella." Damon continued, smiling slightly. "Enzo and I, we were screamers. But not Bella. She used to say… 'There are few men who can make me scream, Damon. And Dr. Whitmore is definitely not one of them.' She was quite the woman, that one." Elena smiled at his words, looking up and finding Damon lost in his own little world, staring with glistening eyes at the cell across from his, and she wondered if that's where this Bella girl used to stay and she wanted to know about her, about how a _girl_ had survived for nearly fifteen years in such place. "Sometimes, they took her twice a day to the lab. We once heard one of Whitmore's people talking, and they were so _awed_, because the good doc had cut half of her open so he could mess with her ovaries or whatever, and she hadn't made a _sound_." Damon remembered that day. Two men had dragged Bella back to her cell, and she laid there, for hours and hours, unresponsively. Enzo cried desperately for her to wake up, begged and begged and slammed against the metal bars, but she just blinked, and Damon smelled the salt of her tears and his heart broke in thousand little pieces as he pressed himself against his own bars, wishing he could have done something about it.

There were five years worth of memories inside that place he wished he could forget, but that one, where strong, proud Bella laid in a heap on the floor, bloody dress and pale as an angel, crying to herself without any help, that was the worst of them all. And he had tried so hard to keep that locked in his head, but now that was all he could think about, and it still felt as if his heart had been pierced with needles, over and over again.

"Enzo hated it. He was usually so calm about it all, but every time they took her, he just snapped. He was a lot of things, that crazy ass dude, but he was also a gentleman, and he cared about her. Even loved her, maybe." Damon continued, feeling the familiar pang of bitterness in his tongue. "He used to talk about her, once they had her on the table. About what they'd do once they were out. Dates, concerts, meals. Enzo had a plan for them, and that's what kept him going for so long, I suspect. But it was easy to get caught up in an alternative reality when we were in here. Anything was better than the real deal. But I don't blame him. We were lonely, she was beautiful, and it was easy to fall in love, with vampire emotions and all."

"Did you?" Elena suddenly interrupted.

"What?"

"Did you fall in love with her?" She repeated, and Damon snapped out of his trance to try to take a look at her. All he could see were her legs, so he resumed his staring at nothing method.

"She was the only one. Besides Katherine, that is. But that one was a manipulative, psychotic bitch, so she doesn't count. But Bella, she was the only woman I ever loved, before you."

"What happened to her?" Elena wondered, sitting up against the wall.

"Doesn't matter, Elena." His voice was suddenly short and clipped, and Elena knew that something bad had happened.

"You loved her. She kept you sane through the hardest time of your life. She matters to you and she matters to _me_." She insisted, and Damon huffed a laugh.

"You're the only one care about your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend, really." He snarked, and Elena rolled her eyes.

"I'm just that special, really." She sarcastically replied, before sobering up once again. "What happened to her, Damon?"

"She's dead." Damon responded, and his voice was even and carefully void of emotion. "She died for me. _Because_ of me."

"What?" Elena gasped and her eyes widened as she turned around to look at him through the opening between their cells. "Damon, I…"

"You didn't know, it's okay." He tranquilized her with a tamed smiled, and Elena furrowed her eyebrows.

"How did she die?" She asked, and her tone was soft and calm. She knew how to manipulate him, and even if she was sorry, Elena just had to know. Damon took a deep breath, gulping air into his lungs and opening his mouth to start speaking.

"We came up with a plan. Enzo did, actually. He was a bit of a mad genius. They fed us a cup of blood a day; just enough to keep us healing and alive, and every New Year, Dr. Whitmore did this thing, a party, of some kind. His own vampire circus. We'd get out of our cells and be put into a cage, and he'd parade us to the Augustine people. To show off the progress of his research. Enzo had an idea. If one vampire took two cups of blood instead of one, he'd be strong enough to fight and get us all out of there. It was a game of rock, paper, and scissors. I won. So I took his glass, everyday for a whole year, and he was right, I was strong enough. Bella offered her own, but Whitmore was getting bolder and bolder with her, and we didn't want her to be weak. Also, she stood across the hall from us, right there." He pointed to the cell in front of him, and Elena nodded. "And any movement she made would be noticed by the guards. Occasionally, she'd share her glass with Enzo, but it wasn't often. He consumed enough not to desiccate, but he was weaker by the day. When New Years arrived, we put our plan into motion." He stopped, closing his eyes. "And that's where it gets messy."

"Damon, I don't care if you killed them all. They hurt you for five years; I could never judge you for that." Elena interrupted, and Damon laughed again.

"Hell yeah, I killed them all. But I don't care about them, Elena. It's not why it got messy; I could care less about the humans." He shrugged, ignoring Elena's sharp intake of breath. "You should know by now that I'm not noble and forgiving like Stefan. When people hurt me, I get even by hurting them. But yes, _1958_. I was strong, they weren't. So I got out of the cage, and I killed Dr. Whitmore first. Then I fed on him. And then I fed on God only knows how many more people, and I finally, after five years, felt satisfied. But somewhere, somehow, a fire started. People were running and someone knocked a candle down, and _bam_. But I had to save them. Bella and Enzo were still on that cage, and I tried to get them out. But the bars were filled with vervain and the fire was taking over everything, Elena. I tried and tried, and I could feel the flames licking my feet. Enzo begged and tried to help, but he was too weak, and Bella was too hurt."

"And then what, Damon?"

"She… Bella told me to leave. She was so calm. Enzo was kicking and fighting and doing all he could, but she was just… Calm. Like she knew what was going to happen. So she grabbed my hands, through the bars, looked at me, straight in the eye, and told me to turn it off and walk away. And my legs were burning and Enzo was screaming and she just repeated it. 'Turn it off, Damon. And walk away. You won't hurt, I promise.' She never made promises she couldn't keep. So I believed her. I turned it off and I walked away. And I never looked back."

"You left them to die?" Elena gasped, her heart stuttering uncomfortably.

"She never loved Enzo as anything other than a sibling. But she loved _me_, Elena. We had plans and I wanted nothing more than stay there 'till my dying breath to help her. But I didn't. I shut down my humanity and I left. Enzo was screaming and she was shushing him, but I felt nothing. I just… Left them to die."

"I… Damon." Elena whispered, and it was a mixture of horror and pain and pity that he just couldn't take.

"Yeah, not exactly a love story, is it? The girl I loved and left to die. Hope you're not second guessing on the whole relationship thing, now."

"Damon, I love you. I just... I don't understand." She mumbled.

"Yeah, you do. You shut off your humanity once, Elena. You know what it means. I just let it all go. But..." Damon replied, and remembering the night all those years ago. Bella had changed everything, she had given him hope, faith, a little happiness and a whole lot of love. And in that last night, she had taken all of it.

"But?"

"Before I left, before I shut it off. I told her I loved her. It was the last thing I could do for her, before I turned my back on her and left her to death. She smiled and it was so beautiful, Elena. She was so beautiful. Even with bloody hair, dirty dress and bruised body, she looked so beautiful and so... At _peace_. But I think it ruined Enzo." Damon rambled, and Elena wondered if he even registered what he was going on and on about. He was usually so closed off, she had no idea why he was talking about all of that. The darkest time of his life. His best friend. The girl he loved and left to die. "He looked at me, straight in the eye, before I left, and there was so much desperation and sadness and pain and regret. He gave me everything, and I took it all from him. His blood, his life. The girl he loved. And no matter how much I regret leaving them to die, no matter how much it kills me and it eats me inside, you know what, Elena? I don't feel any bad about taking Bella from him. Because she was never his to begin with, she was always mine. But not now. Not anymore. Never again."


	2. Chapter 2

**I wanted to give a massive shout out to everyone who reviewed, your ideas and theories make my day and it's so entertaining to read what you guys are thinking about the story and all. Also, massive, massive thank you to Dark-Supernatural-Angel, since I've read basically all her stories and had a bit of a fangirling moment when I read her review. And to answer a few of your questions, Bella will be here soon, but while she isn't, I'll be giving you little sneak peeks of her personality and her relationship with Damon through the flashbacks, okay? Oh, and I'm super, super glad that you approved Damon's feelings for Bella and their 'kinda' relationship, but you'll see more of her and Enzo this chappie, and I hope you like them as well as I do. And last, but not least, this chapter will be very much alike the TVD episode, but there'll be a few changes on the dialogues and then next chapter won't have much more to do with the show. Okay, onto the story!**

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**Damon, Isabella. 1954.**

"Once I'm out of here. I'll torture Whitmore's wife myself." Bella's comment rang loud in his ears, drowning temporarily the sound of Enzo's screams. "I'll tie him up; compel him not to move a muscle, not to make a sound. Then I'll tear her apart, in front of him. If I feel particularly merciful, I'll drown him on her blood myself. If I don't, I'll turn him into a vampire and leave him to feel the overwhelming guilt that he was the one responsible for his wife's death. Forever." Something about the way she spoke, the complete honesty and eagerness she seemed to be feeling caused Damon to settle in the back of his cell, staring right at her. "Do you have ideas about what you'll do once we're out, Damon?"

"None as carefully planned as yours." He replied after a moment of silence, where he could, once again, hear Enzo's pained cries. Bella's eyes were fixed on the hem of her blood rimmed white dress, and like that, she looked almost like a child, too young and innocent to be in such a place.

"Enzo wants to start by their dog. Rip its head off and send it back to the Whitmores. Ruthless, if you ask me. I always loved animals." She continued over another of Enzo's piercing howls. "He's a foolish man. You both are. I don't need anyone to take my place, I can handle my own."

"That wouldn't be very chivalrous, would it?" Damon wondered, and she smiled. It was small and barely there, but it was pretty and it made her look very much younger, and as he stared intently at her, Damon knew that she couldn't be much older than his little brother when she was turned, nothing but a child.

"Chivalry is dead, Damon. Haven't you heard?" She joked, turning her head to look at him. His head was tipped back, and he grimaced every time Enzo's voice entered their ears. "Hey. Look at me, okay? Focus on me. My heart, listen to it." She demanded, and Damon furrowed his eyebrows. "Do as I say, stubborn man. It works." Bella ordered, and he rolled his eyes, but obeyed. Her heartbeat was calm and slow, the _thump, thump, thump _happening in a tranquilizing pace. As he focused more and more in the beating of her heart, every other sound seemed dulled and inexistent. _It was working_.

"How did you find out about that?" He wondered quietly, completely focused on her beating heart, Bella smiled, but he didn't see it.

"Enzo. He doesn't like to hear you screaming, it pains him. So I tell him to listen to my heartbeat, and it works. If it works on Enzo, I can only assume it'd work on you, as well." She answered, settling back against the wall and breathing deeply. The alluringly rhythm lulled him into a sense of peace and when he got back to his senses, Enzo was being ushered back into his cell, groaning and bleeding, and Bella's heart stuttered with pain. The doctor pushed him into the cell, locking it and leaving afterwards, and Damon couldn't help but hear Bella's morbidly calm promise.

"We will kill you, and everyone you ever loved, you know that." She stated, as she pressed herself against the bars that held her from her revenge. Dr. Whitmore turned the lamp towards her, and he smirked, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"You seem awfully energetic, 18537. Maybe I'll take you next."

"Leave her _alone_!" Enzo's roar was angry and pitiful, as he dragged himself to the bars. Dr. Whitmore ignored him, smiled at Bella once again, before turning around and walking away. "Bella. _Isabella_." He groaned, and she shushed him, wiping silent tears from her eyes.

"Shh, it's okay; we'll be okay, Enzo. We'll get out of here." She tried to calm him, stretching her arm through the bar and reaching out for him, a gesture Damon had seen countless times before, but his groans and whimpers only got louder. "Be calm, En. Focus on getting better. You're going to be alright, just focus, okay?" Bella hid her sob with her hand, staring at his neighbor's cell and taking deep breaths, trying to regain control. Damon never felt so helpless in his life.

"Okay. Okay." He gasped, and Damon saw him struggle to drag himself to the bars and turn to his back, reaching his arm out for her. They never touched, but simply the act of reaching out to each other seemingly made Enzo feel better. Damon felt funny when he realized that the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach was jealousy.

* * *

**Damon, Stefan, Aaron, Enzo. 2011.**

"So, this is the good doc's office, huh?" Damon grimaced as they walked into the classroom, looking for Wes. But he wasn't anywhere to be found. Not that it meant they were alone, on the contrary, actually.

"21051." The crisply accented voice rang through the classroom, and Damon's eyes snapped towards the raising figure, sat in the back of the class. He didn't have the dirty, bloodied clothes anymore, and his hair was slicked back and black as night. But Damon would recognize that voice anywhere, for the rest of his existence.

"Enzo." He mumbled, and the other man smirked.

"'S been a while, mate." Enzo replied, walking through the chairs and descending the stairs, and Stefan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and hostility.

"Who the hell are you?" Stefan inquired roughly, but the man's – Enzo's – smile didn't waver as he kept walking towards the trio.

"Lorenzo." He introduced himself, just a few steps away from them. "But my friends call me Enzo." He continued, before extending his hand in Stefan's direction, eyes glued on Damon, sickly smile still in place. "Just kidding, I don't have any friends." Said smile dropped quickly when Stefan did not grab his hand, an indignant huff coming out of Enzo's chest as he left his hand drop. Stefan turned around to look at his older brother.

"Enzo's another Augustine vampire." Damon explained quietly. "Our cells were next to each other." He finished with a quirk of his eyebrows before turning around to look at Enzo, but not meeting his eyes. "We're here to meet somebody. Wes Maxfield, you know him?" He wondered, and Enzo raised a sarcastic eyebrow.

"So, that's your first question for me? No, 'How are you?', 'How did you survive that fire I left you and the girl we loved to die in?', 'How do you feel about the fact that I left with my freedom, the girl and you got absolutely nothing?'" The Augustine vampire wondered, a dangerous calm in his accented voice. Damon gasped deeply, as if he had gotten punched in the stomach.

"Is she…"

"Alive? I wouldn't know." Enzo interrupted, and Damon snapped his eyes to meet him. "They took her, after you escaped. Said it was too dangerous to keep males and females together, that they couldn't understand our behavior. As if we were some sort of animals." He remarked, bitterly. "She fought hard to stay with me, didn't want to leave me behind. But they had her pumped with so much vervain; I could barely smell her blood. And there was a _lot_ of blood, when they took her." Enzo said, and Damon tried to even his breathing, to think of Elena and his brother and even Enzo, who was alive. _Bella was strong, she could have made it._ Stefan stared carefully at him, trying to understand what was going on.

"Uh, does somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Aaron inquired, looking between Damon and Enzo, who snapped his attention from the older Salvatore brother towards the human, a smile back in his face.

"I'd love to." He took a step back, signaling to the chairs in the classroom and he walked away and sat in the teacher's table. "Have a seat. I've been waiting forty five years to talk to somebody."

* * *

"Damon, Isabella and I had been locked in those cells for years. Tortured, beaten… Humiliated." Enzo continued, a distant look on his eyes as the flashbacks from everything that had happened to them ran through his mind. "But she never let it break us. Poor girl took more than any of us could take, and she never gave up. Dr. Whitmore was scared shitless of her, didn't know how she managed to keep it all in, neither did I, if we were honest." He explained, as Aaron sat, listening attentively to the story. "Somewhere along year 7 and year 9, I fell in love with her. I used to plan all the things we'd do together once we escaped. The places I'd take her, the people we'd meet. It was a pretty good plan, until Damon came along. Obviously, I didn't notice it until it was too late." Enzo's voice took a bitter, sarcastic tone, and Damon flinched as Stefan turned his attention to him.

"What happened?" Stefan inquired at Damon, but Enzo was once again, the one who replied.

"We planned our escape. And I gave Damon my cup of blood for an entire year, so he could be strong enough to get out, and save lovely Bella and myself in the process. And our plan began perfectly, didn't it, Damon?" He wondered, looking back at the man who he considered a best friend. "We were waiting in the cage to be released by my friend, my cellmate. And the fire starts burning, out of control. And Damon here, he just can't get the damn cage open." Enzo continues, the smile still in his face as Damon took a deep breath and Aaron and Stefan turn around to stare at him. "So Bella looks at him, right in the eye, tells him to walk away. And by then, I already put the pieces together. He can't open the cage, we're going to die. But he can still try. He can try to get us out, because Bella's feet are burning and he _loves_ us. He wouldn't leave us behind like that. But he does. He looks at her and he holds her hands and he tells her right there. 'I love you'. And she, Bella looks so happy; she looks like she can die in peace." Enzo finishes, smiling bitterly.

"So Damon walks away and leaves us behind. And he doesn't even look at me _once_. Just walks away, and steals the one girl, the one girl I've ever wanted, the one I imagined spending all my existence with. She stayed with me, then, but I knew that he had her. He left me to die and didn't even leave her behind." He wraps up the story, walking back to the table and supporting himself. Stefan stares at an unresponsive Damon for a moment, before looking back at Enzo.

"Hm, wow." He starts. "But you… didn't die. Obviously." Stefan remarks, and Enzo rolls his eyes.

"No, I lived, unfortunately. Some scientist got us out and back to our cages, and then they took Bella from me, and I spent fifty years being opened and closed, and there was no one there with me." He replied, before brushing the imaginary dust from his jeans. "Well, now that we've all been acquainted, I'm gonna get something to wet my whistle. You can… Think about where to find beautiful Elena while I'm gone, yeah?" Enzo smirks, turning around and leaving the classroom.

"You didn't tell me about him." Stefan started once he was out of the class. Damon rolled his eyes.

"It was the nineteen-fifties, am I supposed to remember every moment of my life?" He snarked, before turning around to look at Aaron. "So, Uncle Wes doesn't want to give me my girlfriend, so I'm gonna kill you now. Or do you wanna do it?" Damon changed the subject, and Aaron stood up, taking a step back.

"You didn't tell me about _her_. According to him, you loved this Bella girl."

"Don't. Talk about her. Okay?" Damon snapped, stopping him and raising a hand. "We have to find Elena. That's all that matters."

"So the fact that Bella may be dead doesn't bother you?" Stefan pushed a little further, and Damon roared.

"_Don't_ talk about her, Stefan!" He ordered, closing his hands into tight fists, before turning around to look at Aaron. "So, do you have any useful revelations for us or can I take my thumbs and gauge your pretty little blue eyes out of your pretty little blonde head?" He took three steps into his direction, and Aaron raised his hands.

"No, no, no. Wes gave me a bunch of files from my family history… It's in my dorm. Maybe, maybe there's something you need, there? A name or a, a, a lab?" He exclaimed, and Damon raised his eyebrows.

"That's a useful revelation." He agreed, smirking as Enzo walked back into the room.

"Ah, frightening what we can find on campus, these days." He analyzed the bottle of bourbon, settling the glass and bottle on the teacher's table.

"Knock yourself out; we're going for Plan B." Stefan denied, and Enzo shook his head.

"Nuh, uh. Not Damon. He stays." He poured himself a glass before turning around to look at the trio. "And he knows all my secrets so he can testify about how violent I can get once things don't go the way I want them to." Damon looked at Enzo for a moment before turning around to look at his brother.

"Call me if you find anything; kill 'im if you don't." He instructed, and Stefan nodded. They watched both teenagers walking out of the classroom before Enzo turned around to look at his former best friend.

"And then, there were two. So, how's your life been, mate?" He smirked, taking a step towards Damon as he took a step back. "If we're being honest, mine's been pretty damn miserable."


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm on a ro-oll. Oh, my God. But yes, I got it all in my head and I just can't stop writing. Make It Without You will be updated soon, but I'm trying to get my chapters lengthier and all of that. Also, I have a question for you! I could reply to all your reviews, but it'd make the updates come a little slower, since I'd like to reply with lengthy, proper answers. So you guys can feedback me if you think I should start responding to reviews or not, and I'll give you a verdict next chapter, okay? And to answer a few of your questions, Bella is NOT an Original vampire. I'll be very vague about her until she shows up (which may or may not be very soon), but I can tell you she's not an Original, the humanity situation was a sorta proof of how much Damon actually loved and trusted her, because he'd never do that for anyone else and I wanted to show a little more of their depth, y'know, and about Bella's resistance to pain; like many of you noticed, she's a very strong character, and that's how I originally planned her. She still feels pain as deeply as Damon and Enzo, but she just refuses to let Dr. Whitcreep notice it. And lastly, this is still on the TVD timeline, okay? So, Damon saved Enzo, and he broke up with Elena and right now, he's celebrating Katherine's death with the rest of the crew, and Enzo is doing a little something (wink wink) that you'll see sooner than you imagine. Okay now, onto the story!**

* * *

**Isabella, Damon. 1956.**

"D'you reckon things would have been different, if we had met when I was human?" Damon croaked, leaning against the metal bars as he stared at her bleeding form. Dr. Whitmore was feeling especially creative, and had taken Enzo out to the lab straight after throwing Bella back into her cell, eyes shut tight in pain, and blood dripping down the dress, her low, weak groans starting as soon as he was out of sight, but no matter what, she never made a sound when he was around.

"Maybe. Or maybe you'd have fallen in love with your Katherine either way." She whispered back, a silky smile on her face.

"Had I met you _before_, she wouldn't be my Katherine, but you'd be my Isabella." Damon replied, his fingers tracing the metal bars. Up and down, up and down. Bella sucked in a shaky breath, eyes closed and a somewhat peaceful expression on her face. "I think you'd have liked me human."

"We can't change the past, Damon. Maybe I'd have liked you then. But I like you now as well. Bloody and bruised and beaten. And I'll like you the same once we're out of here." She stated softly, and Damon stared intently at her. Bella's words were always so deep and honest and meaningful, and they always brought him a sense of _belonging_, like somehow, her words were everything he needed. It was too close, too much, too personal. She already felt like a part of him, and it made him feel so good, but so bad.

"Enzo fancies you."

"I know." She nodded, popping one eye open to look at his slightly disturbed eyes. "Don't look at me like that. Love… It's the most powerful feeling. Right now, we all need a thread to hang on to. Enzo's thread is his love for me. I can't cut it, and I won't, because I love him too."

Damon, once again, ignored the feeling in his gut, like a knife had been twisted inside him, and tried not to grimace. He knew that Bella and Enzo shared ten years of memories and feelings and torture together, and that's something he'd never relate to, even if he was with them now. But hearing her proclaim her love, loud and clear, caused bitterness in the back of his throat that could rival what he felt when he watched Katherine choose his brother all those years ago.

"What's yours?" He swallowed the lump in his throat, trying to keep his voice even. Bella smiled.

"You are. You and Enzo. You… Caring about you, it reminds me that I still have a heart. That I'm still capable of caring, even after all of this. You are the most important people in my life, Damon. Both of you." She explained calmly, and Damon took a deep breath, thinking about what to say. "What is yours, soldier?"

"You are." Damon repeated amusingly, smirking when she laughed quietly. "Your heartbeat." He continued, after a moment of comfortable silence. "I can always hear it. No matter where I am, how I'm feeling. Your presence keeps me sane, Isabella."

"Well, don't go expecting me to just accompany you while you're saving your beloved just because I keep you sane, Mr. Salvatore." She mumbled with amusement, clearly trying to disperse the situation. Damon wouldn't have that.

"Maybe… Once we're out of here, I'll finally give up." He started, averting his stare from Bella's face when her eyes suddenly popped open. "Maybe I've found what I've been looking for all these years. If she doesn't choose another man over me, once again, that is." They both knew what he was on about. It wasn't Katherine, not anymore. But her shadows still left insecurities on the older Salvatore brother, and both of them knew that the betrayal he felt when she chose his younger brother over him would sting deeply and forever.

"He's… It's not like that." She argued, shaking her head. "Enzo, I owe him an awful lot, Damon. God only knows what would have been of me if I were alone. And every day, every single day, I hate myself for thinking this, because I wouldn't wish this fate upon my worst enemy, and yet, I feel happy that one of the men I love the most is suffering the same pain I am."

"You feel guilty." Damon observed, and blue eyes met brown and they shined with the tears she couldn't allow to fall. Because if she ever started crying, she'd never be able to stop. "Isabella, that's nothing to feel guilty of. We all feel that way about each other. I'd have lost my mind if you and Enzo weren't here, and it's sick, but I still appreciate your presence. It's nothing to feel guilty about."

The silence that followed them was both calming and maddening. Damon wanted nothing more than to get rid of the bars, to touch her and hug her and make her see that not wanting to be alone was nothing to be guilty about. But he couldn't do that, not while they were still incarcerated, being tortured and humiliated on a daily basis.

"Once we're out of here, you _know_ who I'll choose." She muttered, after what it felt like a century of silence. Damon's head snapped to meet her smoldering gaze, brown eyes that were similar to liquid chocolate burning right into his soul. And then, she grinned. It was sweet and cheeky and it was a promise.

And for once in his life, Damon believed it.

* * *

**Enzo. 2011.**

"Well, dear. I need a favor, and see, it took me a pretty long while to find you, and my patience is very, very thin right now." The European lad smiled, and the witch grimaced as he knelt next to her. "And you can choose whether you'd like to do this in the easy way or in the other way. You know, the way that causes pain?" He threatened, grabbing her arm roughly and raising her to her feet.

"What do you want?" She spat, looking up at his suddenly sunny expression.

"Ah, good girl. I'm looking for someone, and you are going to help me find it." Enzo snatched a piece of bloody white fabric out of his pocket, offering to her, with a smile. The witch groaned and took the thing out of his hand, turning around to look for a map. "You seem to be a pretty experienced witchy, so I'm sure you can do that very quickly."

"I can't just hurry up a spell." She growled, and the smile on his face took a more dangerous turn as he took a step into her direction.

"Okay, love, here's the thing. I've been held in captivity for the last, kind of seventy years, and through all this time, I've only ever loved one girl. She was there with me, you know, and she was lovely. But after our best friend sort of left us to die, they took her away from me, and now that I'm finally free, I intend to find her as soon as possible. So see? I've got great intentions. You do as I politely asked you to, I find the great love of my life and no one gets hurt. You don't do it, and well… There are witches all over the world, really." Enzo explained, blurring to stand in front of the red haired woman, who grinded her teeth, but nodded. "I knew I could count on you to cooperate, really."

"Just, give me a second, okay?" She asked and he shrugged, taking a step back and crossing his arms behind his back. The witch quickly set up all that she needed and started chanting, Enzo furrowed his eyebrows in humor. There was a moment of silence, after she had stopped chanting, before she looked up to stare at the vampire. "I got it."

Enzo smiled lightly, but his usually slow, calm heart, was thundering inside his chest. He was so close to finally seeing Bella again that he could barely believe it. Was she still incarcerated? Was she living in a dungeon with some other vampire, smiling and reaching out for a stranger like she once did to him? Had she managed to escape, had she changed too much? He was quite certain she hadn't, Bella was always too strong to be changed by rough times, stronger than all of them. His smile disappeared when he thought of the last missing piece of the reunion, and betrayal ran deep in his body. Still, Enzo missed his friend. He missed Damon and Bella and how they used to be, so close and in tune with each other. Maybe, once he got his girl, they could go back for Damon, and they could be together once again, and everything would be the same.

Maybe they'd finally get to live the plans they had made all those years ago.

_Don't worry, my Isabella, I'm coming for you._

* * *

**Enzo, Isabella. 2011.**

"You swear you don't need any help, Marcel?" Isabella wondered, clutching her phone to her ear as she smiled at the lady in the reception desk. "I know you cared about this witch girl."

"I'm fine, Bella. And I don't need help. _Davina_ is dead and that's it." The voice on the other side of the line snapped and the brown eyed girl rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry." He sighed after a moment. "Things are just… Tense."

"Don't worry, M. I get it." She smiled in sympathy, before turning her attention back to the receptionist. "Room for one, please. It's already paid." Isabella compelled the lady, who nodded and smiled typing quickly before giving her a set of keys. "Thank you… Mads. You're lovely." She smiled, before walking away from the giggling woman and returning to her phone. "Sorry, I was just fixing myself a hotel room." She apologized to the man, who chuckled lightly.

"You can always come home." He offered as she walked into the lift. A man eyed her appreciatively and she smiled at him as she turned her focus back to Marcel.

"Oh, please. Come home to good ole New Orleans, and just willingly join the whole Original baby drama? I love you more than anything, M, but it isn't my kingdom, and I'm a goddamn coward who'll run as far away from unnecessary pains, you know me." She scoffed as the elevator _ding_ed and stopped and she winked at the older man cheekily before stepping out of the lift. Marcel laughed loudly and she smiled.

"Well, it's your choice." He muttered amusedly, and Bella walked through the hotel corridor, looking for her room. It took her a few seconds, but she eventually found her way, opening her door with the key she had gotten just a few moments ago.

"Okay, M. I just got into my room so I'm just gonna… Go." Her farewell fell short as she looked to the man lying on the bed just across the room, and her mouth fell open in shock.

"B? Bella? You okay there?" Marcel's static voice rang through her ears, and she took a deep, calming breath before smiling and nodding, even though she knew he couldn't see it.

"Yeah, I'm fine, M. I'll call you later, okay?" She agreed, keeping her eyes fixed on the man before her, who slowly sat on the bed, grinning at her.

"Alright, B. Talk to you later. Love you." Marcel said, and she cut the call quickly, letting her hand fall to her side limply as she took three steps in his direction, before stopping. He stood up, still grinning and took the last remaining steps towards the girl, crossing his arms on his chest.

"So, I don't see you for forty years and that's how you welcome me back into your life? It's very disappointing, really." He shrugged, a joking pout on his lips. She stared at him for another moment before a huge smile broke into her face, blurring up and hugging him tightly. "Ouch." He laughed, holding her back.

"Enzo? What are you doing here? How are you even alive? I was told… I was told you were dead, that they had killed you." She rambled, as her hands gripped his face and neck. "You really are here." Bella gasped after a moment, and he nodded, grinning.

"I can hear your heart beating." He finally spoke, after what it felt like years. "I can hear it and I feel like I'm finally whole again." Bella stared at him intently, before hugging him once again, and settling her face on his neck.

"I've missed you so much." She mumbled. "I never looked for you because they told me… They told me you were dead. I… I couldn't, I don't…" Bella choked, and Enzo shushed her, running his hands up and down her back.

"Don't worry, don't worry. Everything is fine now. It's all good. We're together and it's good." He said, and she nodded, raising her head and taking a step back after a second.

"God, I sound like a whiny child. I'm sorry. Let's start this over." She quickly shook her head, before smirking again. "Hello, Enzo. Long time no see."

The grin that seemed to be etched on Enzo's face turned into a smirk and then a loud booming laugh, before he swooped in to hug her once again.

"Now, that's the Isabella I remember."


End file.
